The term derives from the fact that the Orthodox Greeks called the Western European Catholics "Latins", most of whom were of French ("Franks") or Venetian origin. The span of the Frankokratia period is different for every region: the political situation was highly volatile, as the Frankish states were fragmented and changed hands, and in many cases were re-conquered by the Greek successor states.

With the exception of the Ionian Islands and some isolated forts which remained in Venetian hands until the turn of the 19th century, the final end of the Frankokratia in the Greek lands came with the Ottoman conquest, chiefly in the 14th–16th centuries, which ushered in the period known as "Tourkokratia" ("rule of the Turks"; see Ottoman Greece).